Turn in your Bibles with me to
the 19th Psalm. Psalm 19. I began preaching from
this psalm last week, talking about two revelations of God's
glory. This psalm can be divided up
into three sections, and last week I mainly dealt with the
first section, what is called God's world book, which deals
with the revelation of God's glory in creation. The revelation
of God's glory in creation. Look at verse 1, the heavens
declare the glory of God. The reason you have heavens plurals
there is the Hebrews looked at the heaven, heaven or the heavens
as in three parts. And we can justly say that. They looked at the sky. We saw
a beautiful sky this morning, the sun shining in the sky. And
then above that, you have outer space. And then the third heaven
would be the throne of God. Paul said, I was taken to the
third heaven, the very throne of God. Now, the third heaven
is not geography. It's not aerospace science, okay? We do have the sky, we do have
outer space, but the third heaven is the realm of God's throne,
which is over all things. And what he's saying here in
this world book is the heavens declare God's glory, something
of the nature, the majesty, the power, the wisdom of Almighty
God. This is a revelation from God.
He says, the firmament showeth his handiwork. Some translations
say his finger work. God's finger. In other words,
God's the creator. This is the work of God. This
didn't come here from billions of years of evolution. No, sir,
creation did not create itself. This creation just loudly speaks
of a heavenly all-powerful, all-intelligent Creator, Creator God. Verse 2,
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth
knowledge. In other words, there's enough revelation of God's majesty
and glory in the creation by which God holds all people on
all this earth responsible to seek Him. Now we saw last week,
man if left to himself will not seek God. Scripture says that
because of our fallen state. We fell in Adam. We fell into
sin and death. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. And if left to ourselves, what
we do with this revelation from creation, revelation of God in
creation, this revelation in God's world book, if left to
ourselves, we will pervert it. Or we will totally deny it. That's what an atheist is. He's
a person, he or she is a person who has shoved, literally shoved,
this revelation of Almighty God in creation out of their minds.
And we see in Romans chapter 1 that sometimes God, in his
judgment against them, allows them to go even the length of
what he calls a reprobate mind. A mind void of judgment. Now
we could also talk about the natural conscience of man. That's
a reprobate mind too when that is shoved out. But this is talking
about God's creation. He says in verse three, there's
no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Doesn't
matter, even the remotest tribes of the heathen, they have this
revelation of God in creation. Now man by nature, what does
he do? Well, instead of seeking the God, the great and almighty
and majestic God who created that sun that's up in the sky,
what does he do? He worships the sun. Or some
facsimile thereof, or he worships himself. But there's no speech,
there's no language where their voice is not heard. Verse 4,
look at it. Their line has gone out through all the earth. This
covers the whole earth. "...and their words to the end
of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun."
Now, a true believer can see some parallels here to Christ,
can't you? Because we know if God's revealed
Himself to us in Christ, and we'll talk about that in just
a moment, we see Christ, this whole creation, was created by
him and for him, he has the preeminence. Read Colossians chapter one,
it tells us about that. And when it talks about a tabernacle
for the son, I think about Christ the son of righteousness. But
now, left to ourselves, we wouldn't think of that at all. Without
the revelation of God's word book, which we'll look at in
just a moment. Verse five, which is as a bridegroom coming out
of his chamber and rejoiced as a strong man to run a race. In
other words, that revelation of God is so beautiful and so
comely, a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. Ladies, I hate
to tell you, but in that culture, during a wedding, the groom was
the center of attention, not the bride. It was the groom. And that's a perfect type of
Christ for a believer, isn't it? He's the bridegroom. We're
the bride. He's first. He's preeminent.
The attention goes to him. We're secondary in that sin. He saves his bride. We're married
to Christ. And I love that. The bridegroom
coming out of the chamber. Rejoice as a strong man to run
a race. Who ran the race for us? Christ did. He finished the race.
He's the author and finisher of our faith. We can see that
even in creation, can't we? Not just by looking at creation
and logically concluding this out of our depraved minds. No. But because we've seen God's
revelation in His Word. I'll show you that in just a
moment. Here's verse 6, his going forth is from the end of heaven,
his circuit unto the ends of the earth, there's nothing hid
from the heat thereof. There's no part of this creation
that God has not touched with this general revelation of himself
in creation. It's all there, isn't it? Well,
that's God's world book. Now, verse 7 and verse 8, And verse nine, yeah, these next
three verses. Secondly is the revelation of
God's word in his word. We could call that God's word
book. And what's it talking about?
It's talking about this book here, this Bible. My friend, there
is absolutely no, no parallel to or replacement for this revelation
of God in his word book, the Bible. I've often told people, and I've
mentioned this on our TV program, that if I had to tell you what
is the most fundamental doctrine of true Christianity, it's this,
the Bible is God's word. And somebody would ask me, they'd
say, well, what do you mean? Why wouldn't you say Jesus Christ
and him crucified? I'll tell you why. Because the
only way we know about Jesus Christ and him crucified is because
it's written in this book. God's inspired, verbally inspired,
inerrant, perfect word. The scriptures. Paul told Timothy,
these scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation. And that's talking about the
Word of God in the hands and the power of the Holy Spirit
to bring a sinner to conviction. and to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead work. So I want to come back to this.
I want to talk about God's word book today, verses 7 through
9. But I want to mention this because
Brother Mark mentioned this to me last week, and it's a good
point. And Kristen, I know you've already made up the labels. She
makes up the labels on Monday or Tuesday or something like
that. So I don't have time to change my mind. And that's a
problem. But if I had to title this series
through Psalm 19 a different way, you know what, I'd change
one word. I said two revelations of God's glory. I'd change it
to three revelations of God's glory. And the reason is, is
beginning there at verse 10. Now I'm gonna preach on this
next week. When he says, more to be desired are they than gold. And then he goes on and he describes
The proper reaction of God's children, a sinner saved by grace,
to God's world book and God's word book. More to be desired,
more to be desired are they than gold. Who's he talking about
there? He's talking about people who love the word of God. And no man by nature loves the
word of God. They were asking the preacher
that I mentioned last week, Joe Osteen, who had that message
where he was talking about how God trusts you. That was the
whole thing. And somebody asked him, well,
why don't you preach the Bible? And he said, well, his ministry
is not to preach the Bible, really. It's just to get an idea. And
he said, if there's a verse in there that fits with it, I'll
throw it in at the end. Now that doesn't seem more to
be desired than gold, does it? Well, this third revelation is
the revelation of the gospel as the power of God unto salvation,
which opens up the Word to us, opens up the world to us, actually,
to see Christ in all His glory and the glory of His person,
His finished work, the glory of His person as God-man. And
the glory of His finished work as the redemption of His people
which secures us for eternal life in glory with Him. It's
the revelation of God making us wise unto salvation. And what
Mark said, and I agree with him, this is God's wisdom book right
there. When He reveals His Son in us.
You know, Paul said, when it pleased the Lord to reveal His
Son in me. You know, Saul of Tarsus heard
the gospel, didn't he? Read about it. He heard a man
named Stephen preach it. I know that. I think he heard
more than that. I think he heard it more times
than that. But I know he heard Stephen preach it because he
held the coats of those who murdered Stephen. He was in cahoots with
them. But then on the Damascus Road,
what happened? God made that message that he
before hated to be more desired than gold. That's what he did. And I'll talk more about that
next week. But look back at verse 7. Here's
God's word book. This is the scriptures. And he
gives six descriptive titles of God's word book here. And
the result of each one. Number one, he says, the law
of the Lord is perfect. What is he talking about? The
law of the Lord. He's talking about the Word.
He's not talking about the Ten Commandments there. The Ten Commandments,
now listen to me very carefully. You say, well, are you casting
off on the Ten Commandments? No. But I'm going to tell you
something. I can put the Ten Commandments
up here on this wall And you can read it every day of your
life and never be converted. Because that's not the gospel.
Did you hear what I said? Look at it, verse 7. The law
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Now some translations
translate that word converting to be refreshing. But this is
a better word. He's talking about conversion.
Converting the soul. Converting the person. That's
what he's talking about. The inner man. The Ten Commandments never converted
anybody. You want me to prove that to
you? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Now that's not casting off
on the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments was a beautiful
law given to the nation Israel on Mount Sinai, and I mean 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, given to them for a specific purpose. And what
was that purpose? It was to show them their sin. their depravity, their condemnation
based on their best efforts to keep the law. Look at verse 1
of 2 Corinthians 3. Paul writes, Do we begin again
to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles
of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? You
are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all
men, forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of
Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables
of the heart. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the Word of God, not written on tablets of stone.
Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, or thou shalt. What does the
law say to a sinner? Do and live, disobey and die. What does the gospel say to a
sinner? Done. Finished. Completed by Christ. Fulfilled. Christ is the end
of the law, the fulfillment, perfection of the law for everyone
that believes. What does the law do for a sinner?
Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them. What does the gospel say
to the sinner? Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. You see the difference?
And go on there in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 4. He says, in such trust
have we through Christ to God, not that we're sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
as of God, who are also made us able ministers of the New
Testament, and not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter,
that's the law, killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, What's he talking about? He calls
that the ministration of death. Why? Because the only thing it
can do is damn a sinner. Somebody talked about, I can't
remember which preacher it was, talked about people fighting
to keep the Ten Commandments written on the courthouse steps.
Well let me summarize it in one word. Condemned. Well, are the Ten Commandments
wrong? No. No, they're not wrong. But the
problem is, when it comes to the salvation of a sinner, they'll
do you no good. Should we live moral lives? Well,
of course we should. Should we be murderers? Somebody asked me one time, does
that mean we can go out and break the Ten Commandments? No. I'll
tell you what, Cain was a murderer before the law was given on Mount
Sinai, wasn't he? Wasn't Cain a murderer? The first
human baby that was born on earth murdered his brother. What does
that tell you about the human race? Well, that dirty old Cain,
I'm better than him. We're just like Him by nature. You see, the moral principles
of the Ten Commandments didn't begin at Sinai. They were issued
first at creation. And they continue on, not in
the form of the Ten Commandments. Here's what Christ said, love
your neighbor as yourself. Love God perfectly. You see what
I'm saying? I'll go back to Psalm 19. The
law of the Lord, that's the word of God, the word of salvation.
It's the word of obedience, of grace and gratitude. It's the
law of the Lord. And he said this is his divine
law. You've heard the word Torah. Have you heard the word Torah?
The Jews refer to the Torah, which is the first five books
of the Old Testament. That's what the word is there. It's
the teachings. It's the divine law. It's the
instruction that God gives. He said that law is perfect. What does perfect mean? Well,
we know it's inerrant. Listen, if God wrote it, it's
inerrant. It's perfect. It's sovereign. But this word perfect means complete.
It's an all-sided word. So as to cover completely all
aspects of life, beginning with all aspects of how sinners are
saved by the grace of God in Christ. This is a book of Christ.
This book doesn't hold back, does it? This law of the Lord.
It doesn't sugarcoat it for us. How many times have I told you?
People really do not want to face the reality of God's Word. Think about it. We were talking
about it in the back a while ago, about the natural heart
of man. What does the Bible say about
the heart? You know, today in religion, here's what people
preach, and what they think, and what they believe. Listen,
the reason I know that is by experience. I was there. Here's what they think, you know,
God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, and it's in you,
down deep in your heart of hearts, to bring out the goodness of
making the right decision. Isn't that right? What does the
Bible say about the heart of the natural man? You could go
all kinds of places, but I think about Jeremiah 17. The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Now, people
will read that and they say, good night, he must be talking
about Charles Manson or Adolf Hitler or somebody. He can't
be talking about, yes, he's talking about me and you by nature. Even the most religious of us,
the best moralists that ever lived is included in that bunch,
that motley crew. It's what the Bible says and
we just don't like that. Talk about how we can have our
best life now. Oh, but the Bible says in Psalm
39, man at his best state is altogether what? Vanity, that
means worthless. Best life now? My friend, our best is not good
enough. God's best is everything because
God's best is His Son. Think about what, you know, preachers
talk about how, well, in order for God to forgive you, you've
got to confess. Or you've got to cry tears of
repentance and remorse. Or you've got to turn over a
new leaf. Now, how does all that compare to God's best, the blood
of His Son? What pride! What self-righteousness
to think that my reformations and my tears could even compare
to the blood of the Son of God incarnate. Well, you've got to do right,
they say. Yes, you do. Yeah, we should do right in every
area. We should strive to be the best
of the best of the best of the best. But to ever think that
my best could compare to God's Son and His righteousness? What
He accomplished on Calvary through His obedience unto death? For
me to think that anything could recommend me unto God but His
righteousness imputed to me? That's deception. That's unbelief. That's idolatry. But this law
of the Lord, it's complete. You know we have the completed
revelation of God right here in this book. That's why it says
in Revelation 22, anybody that takes away from it or adds to
it, their names aren't written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Converting the soul, that means
bringing us to repentance. And that's the gift of God. We're
not gonna do that on our own. Listen, faith and repentance
are not deep down inside of us. Preacher eloquence and psychology
and emotions will not drag it out of us. Oh, the deacons may
get you down the aisle and the organist may be playing a beautiful
song, but that will not convert the soul. Only God can change
the heart. Only God can give a new heart.
Only God can give life. You remember when Christ was
asked by his disciples, why do you speak in parables? And he
said, it's a judgment against those who they hear me preach,
but they don't believe. They won't hear with the spiritual
ear. He said, but blessed are your ears, for they hear. Blessed
are your eyes, for they see. He said, they shut their ears
and their eyes, lest they be converted. Now why is it that
a person would not want to be converted? Think about it. You know why we by nature don't
want to be converted? because we think too highly of
ourselves, our experiences, our emotions, our dreams, our works,
and we don't want to leave them behind. You're not going to tell
me that that experience I had when
I was 12 walking that aisle wasn't anything but idolatry. You're
not going to tell me that. You're not going to tell me that
all that I've gone through and my grandma, my mama taught me
is a lie. You're not going to tell me that.
I don't want to be converted to that. Shut my ears. Don't
want to hear that. Now, I hope your grandmothers
and your mamas taught you the right gospel. But here's what
I'm saying. If they didn't, I'm just like
the Apostle Paul. I counted all but done that I
may win Christ. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law." That's conversion. Here's a man, Saul of Tarsus,
who hated Christ and hated his word and hated his followers
on the road to Damascus to put him in jail, have him tried and
executed. And what happened? There was
a conversion that took place and it didn't come from deep
down in Saul's natural heart. I never forget the first time
I heard Brother Mann talk about that. He said Saul of Tarsus
was not on his way to a prayer meeting when God converted him. He was on his way to kill Christians. Salvation's by grace. Salvation
is not God's response to me or you. Conversion is not God's
response to me or you, it is our response to the power of
God unto salvation wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. Here's the second one, verse
7. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The testimony is God's own personal
testimony of Himself. That's what He's talking about.
This is the perfect reflection of the nature of God. You want
to know how God can be just and justifier? There's the glory
of God. There's the Shekinah right there.
How can a holy and just and righteous God who must punish sin, who
hates all workers of iniquity, how can He look at me? And just
like in that psalm Randy read, he said, they doeth no iniquity.
How in the world can that be said of me or you? Sinners? There's only one way. As we stand
washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and clothed in his righteousness
imputed. And that's it. That's the testimony of the Lord.
That's God's personal testimony of Himself. Listen, I used to
go to these testimonial meetings. How about you? Would you rather
hear God's testimony? Well, look here. The testimony
of the Lord is sure. You know what that means? It
means you can bank on that. It's certain. You know why? Because
all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen. Now I can stand
up and give my testimony, and it may not be sure. I may be
embellishing. I may be, you know, I love to
tell a good story. I like to have people sitting
on the edge of their seats and all that junk. This is God's testimony of Himself. And it's sure. You can bank on
it now. All who call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved. There's security in Christ. There's
no security anywhere else now. There's no security in any of
us. That preacher last week, he said, God trusts you. My,
so we don't even trust each other. God trusts me? No, no. His testimony is sure. And it
makes wise the simple, wise unto salvation. You know what the
word simple means there? It means like an open door. He's open to the Word of God.
You know why? Because Christ opened the door. He doesn't discriminate
in the way against the Word of God. It's like an open mind. Now sometimes having an open
mind can be a detriment. That means you let anything come
in and anything go out. But that's not the same here.
The simple refers to us by nature as being ignorant of the Word
of God. What does God do? He reveals Himself to us. He
makes us wise unto salvation. He makes the gospel the power
of God and the wisdom of God in Christ. Wise unto salvation? How? By
showing us the revelation of His righteousness in the gospel. To know that I'm a sinner. And
here's wisdom. You know, if we compare ourselves
to other people, we really come out, in the most cases, looking
pretty good. But now here's wisdom. If God
were to give me right now, on my best day, what I deserve and
what I've earned, it would be eternal death. Eternal damnation. Here's greater
wisdom. Can God give me eternal life?
Can he justify me? Can he look at a person like
me and say not guilty and still be God now? Can he look at a
person like me and say he does no iniquity in the proper sense? Can he look at a sinner like
me and say righteous? Here's wisdom. Jesus Christ is
my advocate. He died for my sins. He was buried. He arose again the third day
because of my justification. I stand in Him. Look at verse
8. Here's the third one. The statutes
of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Statutes are His precepts.
It's His principles. It's His doctrine. It's the absolutes
of Scripture. The statutes of the Lord. The
doctrine of Christ. Remember John wrote, He that
transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not
God. What is the doctrine of Christ?
It's the doctrine of His person. It's the doctrine of His finished
work. It's the doctrine of God. It's the doctrine of man, our
sinfulness, His decrees and His counsels. And you know what He
says? They're right. They're right. Let God be true and every
man a liar. Man's statutes, the statutes
of men, they're not right when it comes to a relationship with
God. But even the statutes of man
that are right come from God. Did you know that? The statutes of the Lord are
right. Somebody says, well, what if nobody believes them? They're
still right. What if everybody believes them?
They're still right. You see, our believing it or
not believing it doesn't make it right. God's right, no matter
what. And you see, that rejoices the
heart. Whose hearts does it rejoice? Well, it rejoices the hearts
of His children. What God does is right. Think
about it. If God damns a sinner, that's
right. That's not unfair and unjust.
It's right. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Yes. If God saves a sinner, that's
right. How can it be right? By His grace
through the righteousness of His Son. That's the only way
it can be right. There's no other way that God can be right and
save a sinner, but through Christ. I heard a preacher say one time,
they said, well, God could have snapped His fingers and redeemed
us. Oh, no. That's wrong. You see, when God does whatever
He does, He must do right. And when we consider how right
God is in saving sinners like us through amazing grace based
upon the righteousness of His Son freely imputed, doesn't that
rejoice our hearts? That's why when we hear anything
else, it doesn't rejoice our hearts. It saddens us, doesn't
it? It's for His glory, our good,
our joy and peace comes in believing God's Word. John wrote, I write these things
that your joy may be full. Look at the next one. Verse 8,
here's number 4. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. What is the commandment of the
Lord? It's what God says to do and not to do. And there's no
error there. It's pure. There's no mixture
there. There's no contamination there. It's instruction in righteousness. And he says that enlightens the
eyes, it gives understanding. God's commandment to his children
is not defiled with self-righteousness and legalism, mercenary promises
of earned reward. It's not defiled with man's opinions,
man's philosophies, man's ideas. It's totally God. It's not defiled
with human pride meant to glorify men. It's not defiled with lies. It's pure. And you know why it's
pure? Because it always leads us to
the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from all sin. It's
always everything that God tells us to do and not to do is never
intended to make us legalistic or self-righteous. It's always
for his glory, for our good. It's always motivated by grace
and gratitude and love. It's always accepted with God
through the blood of His Son. That's the commandment of the
Lord. And look at verse 9. He says, here's the fifth one.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The fear of
the Lord is worship. Worship in spirit and in truth.
Worshipping in faith. Looking to Christ. Reverencing,
respecting the God who saves sinners by His grace through
the righteousness of His Son. And it always, this fear always
drives us not to self, not to the law. This is godly fear. You see, the fear of God that
drives sinners to the law is legalism. Well, I better stop
doing this and start doing that and get right with God. Now,
you need to get right with God. I need to get right with God.
But stop doing this and start doing that won't do it. That's
legalism. Religion, false religion. The
fear of the Lord always drives sinners to Christ. For hope,
for peace, for salvation, for righteousness, for forgiveness,
for eternal life, for glory. It directs us to His blood and
righteousness, and that endures forever. You see, the legal fear
that drives you to the law or drives you to religion, it won't
last. Now, it may endure unto judgment, but it's over then. But it doesn't last. But this
endures forever. Because it's in Jesus Christ,
the author and finisher of our faith. And then lastly, look
at verse 9. Here's the sixth one. He says,
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. What's God's judgment? That's
His verdict. What's the verdict? Guilty. Not guilty. It's His judgment
of truth. Is this true or is this a lie? It's His judgment of salvation.
The Bible says that when it comes to the salvation of a sinner,
it is God that justifies. It's God who declares the verdict
not guilty. It's God who declares the verdict
righteous. And how does He do it? He does
it in truth. He does it in Christ, who is
the truth. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. His
judgments are true. His judgments are all right.